GNU awk nextfile vs POSIX-compliant record skipping for log filtering

When processing large volumes of log files to identify specific alert triggers, reducing I/O overhead is critical. GNU awk provides the nextfile function, which allows a script to immediately stop processing the current file and move to the next one once a stop condition is met.

In environments requiring POSIX compliance, nextfile is unavailable. The alternative is to use a flag or guard variable to skip all subsequent records in a file after the trigger is found, though the implementation must still read the remaining lines of the file to reach the EOF.

The trade-off involves choosing between the I/O efficiency of GNU-specific extensions and the portability of POSIX-standard record processing.

• Does the performance gain from nextfile justify the loss of portability across mawk or busybox awk in high-volume streaming environments?
• What is the expected impact on processing latency when switching from nextfile to a POSIX-compliant boolean guard for files exceeding several gigabytes?